Ag Food and Resource Economics Summer Experiences

Week 6 at Brown Bag Seafood

I really cant believe I have already completed the first half of my internship with Brown Bag Seafood. I still feel like I just moved to this city and just met all of my coworkers, yet I feel remarkably comfortable in my position as Food and Beverage Intern and with my role as assistant manager.

This week was more challenging than ever because our lunchtime kitchen lead Alejandro, is out in the Mojave Desert training with the marines, which means everyone in the kitchen needs to pick up the tasks we regularly rely on Alejandro for and less direction to coordinate these tasks. For me specifically, this meant I had to jump into the position we call “tickets”. I had only just trained on this position last week when I had Alejandro behind me in support, but this week I was all on my own. I found this to be a little intimidating at first but quickly embraced the position, found my rhythm, and by the end of the week I was able to breeze through a lunch rush with ease. In addition to ticket calling, I also had to help the kitchen staff prepare the kitchen before the lunch rush. This was particularly challenging because the two ladies I was setting up with spoke Spanish as their first language, however in turned out to be a very profitable experience to learn to communicate with them as we got our work done. They helped show me how to skin, cut, and marinade fish as well as making slaw from scratch, and how to make our house buffalo sauce.

All while assuming some of Alejandro’s daily responsibilities I have significantly progressed on my own intern agenda as well. I have successfully completed the restaurant’s US Foods ordering application, and have officially submitted my intern project proposal. For my project I want to cost and forecast setting up a mobile extension of Brown Bag that can cater Chicago’s street festivals. Chicago has many of these festivals every weekend all over the city and with 4 locations by the end of the year Brown Bag will be well equipped to be a part of these festivals and I would personally like to make it happen.